HOSPITAL ETIQUETTE

 Do you remember my post not so long ago I mentioned that if you don't see or hear the news, you can't be part of the solution?

  Well on the news recently was that story about how the patients from Royal Jubilee Hospital are being booted out of the hospital with no warning or, in some cases, time to make plans or even have somewhere to go.  It's brutal and inhumane and just plain expensive or scary for some.

When Monte was ambulanced down to that hospital to the cardiac unit in Nov. 2020 it happened to him.  I had specifically asked the hospital to let me know either the day before or early morning the day of discharge.  I explained that I was three hours away.

The reason I even thought about it is because Monte overheard a nurse talking to the ambulance guy about an Elder from way up North Island.  He was emergency airvacced down to Royal cardiac unit.  When they were done with him they just kicked him out.  No clothes to speak of, no wallet, no money, no way home.  They didn't know what happened to him from that point.

The very day I requested a little notice on Monte's discharge they waited until late afternoon, same day I asked, and booted him late that afternoon.  There was no way I could get him.  So we booked him into a walking distance hotel and I headed down early the next day to get there before checkout time.  Cost us a couple hundred dollars...assholes.

Anyway I read about the current deplorable situation and saw it on the news, so I wrote a letter to one of our Island news sources.  I get an email everyday from them and the story was front page.

I wrote to the editor and told our story.  And guess what??!!  I got an email back, telling me that she was following up on that story and would like a quick chat.  So I got hold of Monte, after all he was the one that overheard the conversation about the Elder and the rest was his personal story to tell.  And that is what he is doing right now!  I would be so proud if there was any way, even in a really small way,  we help rectify that awful situation.

Well I just made a pot of barley soup.  It's weird cooking with pot sizes I am not used to.  I don't know how those cooking show contestants do it.  I always start off with a fairly small decent for three people pot and end up dumping it, half way through, into a made for six bigger pot, and I have been known to even have to dump it again into my massive 15" wok.  Sigh.  I can't cook small.  (shovel list). The soup tastes good, and the pot is filled to the brim. Everything is in the pot now, and the water line is a lot like a little boat with three really fat men sitting dead still in it, the water line less than an inch from the brim.  It isn't overflowing, if I don't stir it violently.  I would like to loosen up the seized up barley on the bottom but....no.

Well I have solidified my going home plans.  I made a reservation for Monte at the North Vancouver Hotel..our go to home away from home, for Sunday night. Dogs can't stay there right now, they are renovating.  So he can pick LL and myself and all my stuff up on Monday morning.  We are going to take off for Ikea, maybe in Richmond.  Then hit the ferry out at Tswassen and stay a night in Victoria.  Monte can see Levi, we can hit the Langford Costco and then head home.  We will spend the night at the Zed hotel.  Graeme is arranging a promo rate for us!!!  Sweet boy that he is!!!

I have loved being here.  April and Myles are the kindest most thoughtful people.  I never feel uncomfortable or like I am in the way and I am pretty sure I actually am.  I will be back when she has finished her stint at the clinic.  I have promised to bring a certain dog back!

All the lights are off now, dishwasher clanking and banging away in the kitchen and the laundry is spinning happily away in the pantry.  Such homey sounds.  I love it.  Have a happy rest of the week.  TTYL

'Family dinners: the glue that holds our busy lives together.'  anon

TAKING PICTURES

OMG!!!  THE PERFECT COLOUR!!!!

GETTING READY TO DIG IN

SHOWING OFF THE EXTRA CUTE NAPKINS!

BROWNIES FOR DESSERT

THE LOADED PLATE.  THIS WAS APRIL'S BTW, NOT MINE.  SHE COULD ONLY EAT A THIRD OF IT!!!  THE REST MADE A GREAT LUNCH THE NEXT DAY

  

MAYBE THIS IS THE REASON

 I have not made it a secret that I can't stand the current Premier or his party here in BC.  And I haven't made it a secret that I think the latest move they made about short term rentals as a problem solving move for housing is ridiculous.  Targeting corporate owned short termers...great....but mom/pop operations? Give me a break!!!

I just read in a tiny backwater news email about the cap the feds have put on foreign student numbers in Canada.  It led to the stat info that Canada's population rose by 1.25 million over the last 12 months to Oct 1., almost all of the increase was driven by international migration.  New housing increased by 300,000.  You can do the math.  Funny how this provincial government yaps on about empty houses and short term rentals but nothing about the complete imbalance causing the problem.  Supply and demand, bottom line.

Enough of that!!!  I am having a totally wonderful time.  I get waited on hand and foot, April goes out of her way to provide low carb foods, Myles provides incredibly interesting conversation, Leeloo is a total joy, most the time lol, and this couch is the most comfy thing possible to spend the day and night on. I am loving it.  Both of them are gone during the day so I get to watch my shows on tv, do my writing, clean the kitchen, and today I think I will see if there is a load of laundry to fold.

The housekeeper at home is coming today so I am depending on Monte to have the place ready.  Mr. Minimal, I hope he is thorough!  But alas! I fear probably not.  She is pretty good though and has been through this before.  Ange just told me that he did a fantastic job.  So I take all that back!!!  I think I will be here another week.  Monte will come and get me the beginning of next week.

I brought a prime rib roast with me when I came.  It is all thawed out and ready to be primed..haha!  Today is the day.  I shall roast it later today and prep the rest of dinner.  We had Myles pick up beef fat from the butchers to make gravy.  I don't trust that the roast will produce enough fat for that.  They never do.  I also brought my never been used pop over tins...designed to make Yorkshires.  We shall test them out today!  I will try to remember to take some pics!

I just got a picture on my phone, not one that is too welcome.  It was a picture from Monte...a very ugly bloody finger...with the message that he had a fight with the silverware drawer.  What???  I hate to admit this but all I could think was, Crap!!!  Did he slam it and break my drawer?  I then found out he was at the hospital getting stitched up.  I guess there was a knife in the drawer, not where it belongs btw, and he has a pretty skookum cut across his knuckle.  I hope the whining will be basically over by the time he comes to pick me up.  Knuckles are not a great place to get a slash!  I did tell him to make sure that there is no blood visible anywhere.  The housekeeper won't want to be near that! Do I sound unsympathetic?  He is the one that put that knife in there!  (shovel list) 

Well I shall put this down and get on with the day.  I am making arrangements with Monte to pick me up next Monday.  I will put him up in a hotel for the night and the next day we will check out early and go out to Ikea.  Wanna get some ideas.  And then we shall make a stop at a Costco then TNT.  Need some of that good crispy pork they make.  And maybe a little duck!!!!  TTYL

'Veal is a very young beef and, like a very young girlfriend, it's cute but boring and expensive.'  P.J. O'Rourke

BEGGING TO HAVE THAT PINK THING TAKEN OFF.  SHE HATES COATS AND SHIRTS

SHE FREEZES TO THE SPOT AND WILL NOT MOVE...NOT ONE INCH

FINALLY LAYS DOWN AND AGAIN....WON'T MOVE

NOT GIVEN A CHOICE

BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS

I LOVE IT HERE

  It is so awesome to be here with April and Myles.  And I got to see Aryn and Bradley!!!!!  I just don't get to see enough of my kids.  Aryn and Bradley are heading off to Alberta and will be gone for two or three months.  They will be in an indescribably beautiful place, very isolated but nestled in the rockies...looking just like a picture from a calendar.

It's so nice to be here too.  Myles is the sweetest guy!  He sat with us tonite and we watched a couple of truly laugh out loud movies.  Crazy!!!

Earlier I made pea soup.  I had brought a very hammy bone with me and a bag of split peas.  So pea soup for supper it twas!  And with it was a slice of a wonderful loaf of soda bread that Arnie had made and brought over.  It was delicious.  A perfect simple meal for cold weather.

The trip over was pretty uneventful.  I did go upstairs to the cafeteria for a bowl of soup.  It was delish.  I didn't stay up there too long.  There were throngs of coughing people up there and I do not want flu or covid right now...or ever for that matter.  I started to read a book and fell asleep.  There was still over an hour to go.  I woke up to a bump of some sort only to find that we were all docked and unloading!  Jeez!!!  I got myself organized as quick as possible and off the ferry we went.  I would have died of embarrassment if someone had had to bang on the roof of my car!!!

April is off to work tomorrow for the next five weeks.  I shall be Leeloo walking and playing.  There has been a prediction of a snow dump tonight. We shall see.  April is going to walk to work.  It's a 45 min walk but there is zero chance of finding parking any closer than we are here.  This stupid city.  It has become one of the big boys on the world map and no parking and over crowding and paying big money to enter parks etc...is just what comes with that.  It is too bad.  Peter principle for a city.

It feels weird not having wheels.  Not that I would want to drive in the snow.  But the snow isn't going to last very long.  It hardly ever does.

It is now the next morning, Wed.  And yes, it snowed like hell.  All schools in BC are closed.

I would like to go to Kin's and pick up veggies.  I did bring my protein drink powder and the shake maker. I haven't used it lately.  I also brought a bunch of 1 carb tortillas.  They come in really handy.  You can stuff them any way you want...eggs, lettuce wrap leftovers, cheese.  But I need peppers and green onions and cucumbers etc...The snow has kind of thrown a spanner into the mix.

So right now I am going to shower, dress, clean the kitchen and walk Leeloo and read my book.  Oh what a day!!!!  I love it.  I do miss Monte and Ange though.  It feels weird not seeing them.  Ange sent me a couple of pics this morning of the tremendous amount of snow there.  Way more than here!

Well thats it for now.  I shall check in again in a couple of days or if and when something happens.  TTYL

'Obesity is a prison:  In the US we spend more to treat type 2 diabetes each year than on education.'  David Letterman

the start of this quote pisses me off.  The diabetes develops before the getting fat.  Now it is true there are lots of  people who are overweight that develop diabetes, that happens.  But....many many many of us are NOT fat when we develop the disease.  I was skinny as hell when I got it.  They have scientifically researched and proven that type 2 diabetes CAUSES weight gain, weight that is super hard to get off.  So It is time to change the tune people.  Lots and lots of really overweight huge fat people are perfectly free of any type of diabetes.  And lots and lots and lots of skinny people develop it....and gain weight. David Letterman needs to bone up on his science.

Ps:  I just read anonymous's comment.  She asked how Cookie and I met.  We met in Kamloops in grade ten, at school and became fast friends.  We made a pact that we never criticize each other.  Even then we could see what that causes between friends and to this day, almost sixty years later we have never ever had a fight.  Not one!!!  She is one of the truly most amazing people in this world.  She is the only other than close family in this world that if I were in far away Africa and something catastrophic happened in her life I would immediately fly home to her.  And Bill totally agreed.  And thanks for asking Anonymous!!!

A TYPICAL BREAKFAST, BUT I COULD ONLY EAT TWO OF 

RANDOM THOUGHTS AND PICS

 Cookie is my super bff supporter.  She left a comment on my last post telling me I can leave my tree up if I want to!!!  I just might do that...to be honest though it might be due more to procrastination than enjoyment.  Whatever....  Thank you Cook!!!!

I think, by looking at the guts of this blog, that some of the readers live very far away and in much warmer climates.  If they were reading our news, but why would they be, from here they would think we were all at risk of dying from freezing to death. (shovel list)

Honest to Pete...for you people out in the warmer world....unless you are  choosing to be out there in the freezing cold, we are all fine.  You would think it never got cold here ever.  Granted it is a wee bit colder this year than the last couple years but seriously people, I remember living in Kamloops and it would hit forty below pretty much once a winter.  And guess what?  We all survived it.

Listening to the morning news and all the dire warnings and endless howling about the cold front and the extra excited senior weatherman they have dragged in for the weather report at five in the morning (he usually doesn't show up on his 'on' days til six or seven) gesticulating and extra animated talking etc..., you would think it was armageddon.  My only beef with this weather are the people with summer tires. They are the real menace and danger, not the weather.  Good tires keep you on the road, summer tires don't.

We get cases of V8 from No Frills.  Monte and I are addicted to V8.  We get about four cases per month and put them just outside the deck door.

Well one huge upside of this cold front is they are frozen.  I love it when they freeze.  I bring them in one at a time and have to be patient and wait for melting.  I slowly over a period of time slurp the growing slush out of the can.  It's my fave thing to do with them.  Beats any slurpee you can buy at 7-11!

I finally emptied a rubber maid I had in my bedroom and hauled it out onto the trunk in the living room.  I have a list a mile long of stuff to go to April's place.  I have today and tomorrow to get it all packed.  So all non food stuff will be packed before bed tonight and food and ironing will be done tomorrow.  Oh and hair washing.  I also need to pack a separate box for Aryn and Bradley.  I haven't checked the van for cleanliness but it is what it is.  Aryn and Bradley won't care I think.  If they do they can take it up with Mr. Man.

Well I best get off my duff and start working on that immensely long list I made of stuff to go to Ape's.  They are saving money hand over fist for a down payment on a house.  As a result they do without a lot of stuff and have completely stopped going out to eat etc.  April cooks every single night. They did get to go to a couple of staff parties at xmas that were all paid for of course so it was pretty exciting for them.  But I think I would like to take them out one night as a treat and I am bringing a bunch of stuff from the freezer to make for their dinners.  They both are working so hard towards buying a home..not an easy thing to do in Vancouver.  I shall be posting from over there.  Til then be safe, and have winter tires!!!!  TTYL

'It's colder than a witch's tit in a steel bra.' David Levithan. Will Greyson.   sorry about the rudeness but Bill used to say this and I did not know it was a quote!!!  I thought he was clever!!!  I still think he is but not over this!

RANDOM ROLL OF THE MOUSE TODAY...I TOOK THIS IN MEXICO....I LIKED THE DIFFERENT BLUES

IN PARIS WITH APRIL AND MYLES

SO QUINTESSENTIAL PARIS JUST BELOW SACRE CEOUR (SP)

OUTSIDE SITKA

PARKSVILLE....SO MUCH FOR THAT BRITISH PUB

GEE LOUISE...NOT MY FIRST RODEO THANK GOODNESS!!!

 Well heckadoodle!  I think my insurance woes are totally exacerbated due to the fact that clearly the left hand does not have a clue what the right hand is doing!  As the restoration fella left our house, stating all would be taken care of, I got an email from the adjuster saying NOPE!!!  Not happening.  No reason. No apologies. Just No!  It was a two line rude not well written missive.  So whilst I was completely outraged (shovel list), I sat down and blasted off a pretty nasty blunt email.  I normally wouldn't do that, I would wait til I calmed down but I wanted to sound insanely mad so I didn't wait or even reread it.

Long boring, to you folks I am sure, story short, I got a call from the actual insurance rep.  I learned with our other claims, house burning down, water pipes breaking, rodents eating and giant hole in the roof during the rainy season etc..... there is a hierarchy to follow. Agent, underwriter (insurance company), adjuster, restoration company workers.  This email came from the adjuster.

The next day I had a call from a lovely lady from the insurance company, who by the way is higher up the ladder than the adjuster.  She was as appalled as I was when I read her that email.  She asked me to forward it to her.  I mean seriously...we don't even know what the cause is yet and we won't til the restoration guy is finished in about two weeks after getting his asbestos course finished and he can legally work with the asbestos infested gyprock.  Sigh.  I have a feeling, and I am preparing, to pay for the whole shebang.  I just want them to find out what the problem is before they turn me down.

I have not been out of this house in so long.  I am getting waaaay too comfy not dressing or doing my hair or even cooking properly, believe it or not. I am thinking that staying home so continuously is an addiction!  And it is an addiction, not agoraphobia.  I can and will leave the house, but I way prefer not to!

The housekeeper came yesterday.  It's the first time since the middle of Dec.  I didn't realize how dirty this place had become.  I generally try to keep it picked up, but I refuse to vacuum.  I also don't scrub the floors or the sink or the stove.  I exploded a plastic squeeze bottle of honey dregs in the microwave about a year ago.  To this day the light button where the door shuts still gets stuck and doesn't turn the light on sometimes.

After she left it was shocking how squeaky clean the place looked and felt.  I loved it!!!!  Now I am fighting with a certain person to help keep it that way for at least a couple of days.  So far he has done pretty good.

So, I have a question.  How long can one get away with leaving their Christmas tree up?  If I had my way I would leave it up all year!  I love pausing my eyes on the tree now and then and just taking in the lights and symatree (misspelled on purpose lol).  It calms me and recentres all that is right.  I will put a pic at the end here of what I am looking at right now.  You will see why I want to leave it up.

Now I must hobble into my room and get dressed.  Yesterday morning super early I was in the kitchen making coffee.  Whilst I waited I started cleaning the corner of my kitchen that was a disgusting mess.  And in the middle of doing that I leaned a very large heavy, super heavy solid wood cutting board against the cabinet that is there.  It fell over gouging my leg just under my knee and the edge landed right on the top of my foot.  Holy doodle!!!!! Instant blinding pain!  I couldn't walk on the stupid thing for half the day.  I couldn't even put a sock on the foot.  I thought I had for sure cracked a bone or something.  Now it's turning black.  It only hurts now if I walk or touch it.  I gotta learn to slow down.  I was trying to get the corner done before my coffee finished dripping or some unnamed horrible thing would happen....mind games, or defence mechanisms I learned it was called in high school guidance class.

Well enough rambling.  Ima go now...have a great day people!!!!  TTYL

'Nothing ever seems too bad, too hard or too sad when you've got a Christmas tree in the living room'. Tom Baker......see?  good reason to leave it up forever!!!

TELL ME...WHY WOULD I WANT TO GET DRESSED OR LEAVE THE HOUSE OR TAKE THAT TREE DOWN!!!!!

MAYBE I WAS JUST A TOUCH PESSIMISTIC

 Pessimistic.  Yup.  The insurance will be covering the inside damage.  But there is asbestos involved and asbestos rules changed January 2.  So that will delay the whole process by at least a month.  In the meantime the whole area over there is wet again.  I have a feeling it is going to end up being a plumbing issue.  And that is an easy fix.

It has been super quiet around here since xmas.  Monte and I did stay up New Years to watch the ball drop.  I used love watching the Dick Clark show but not so much this year.  In fact we muted the tv until the ball started dropping.  I hate Motown, rhythm and blues and rap (and I hesitate to include rap in a 'music' list, its just talking dirty, no singing and crotch grabbing and when they run out of words they go uuuh uuuh uuuh, in a grunting manner).

Anyway we watched the ball and happy new yeared each other then went to bed.  Unless you are planning to attend or throw a party there isn't much point to New Years.  And I can't say two people is much of a party. 

 I remember one year when we were driving south with the dogs and kids one xmas, we landed in Yuma for New years eve.  Our hotel was right on the time line so at twelve on one side the bells and horns and fireworks went off.  Then exactly one hour later they did it again!!  So we got two that year!

I am refusing to take my tree down.  I love sitting here looking at the lights and symmetry of the little tree.  It is so pretty.  If I had my way I would leave it up year round!  Plus when it comes down I have to find a place for the big trunk that came out of the guest room/now Monte's room.  It is in the middle of the living room floor being used as a coffee table.  I think it will make its way down to the new guest room when we make it after the insurance fixes every thing.

On the fifteenth I am driving Monte's van over to April's.  Bradley and Aryn will pick it up from there and use it for the next few months for transferring scaffolding to their next job in Alberta.

I am going to stay at Ape's for a couple of weeks.  She is working in a kids' clinic for five weeks and Leeloo will be alone for too long during the day.  She can and has done it but I am quite happy to slide onto their couch and granddoggy sit.  Then after two weeks I am taking LL home with me while she finishes her stint at the clinic.  I am pretty stoked about it.  I love that little mutt.

I read a recipe for shepherd's pie.  Just to see if I am missing a key ingredient or something.  OMG!!!!!  I was absolutely laughing by the end of it.  One precise careful recipe actually weighed the potatoes with a kitchen scale so the potato puff on top would be the proper ratio to the meat below section!!  I couldn't believe what I was reading.  If you followed their step by step instructions it would take all day!

The first thing I did with mine was make a crap load of gravy from some frozen beef tallow I had.  I then cooked and mashed the potatoes with sour cream and a load of Montreal steak spice. (makes it totally taste like baked potatoes).  I steamed some carrots then whomped them down to small size.  Then fried onions, hamburger meat, squirted ketchup in, added carrots and frozen peas.  I dumped it in the casserole dish.  I added gravy.  Then I piled about ten pounds of mash on top and baked it.  It was so far from all the careful recipes.  And it was totally delicious and enough leftovers for several lunches and enough gravy to fill several containers for future.  Okay.  That's my food talk for this post!

Now it is time for laundry.  It is piled sky high down there.  It is pretty much all Monte's, clothes and bedding.  He sleeps all day then is up all night, usually working.  He can't do laundry in the night as it keeps Ange awake so I do it during the day for him.  It's better that way anyway.  Keeps order in that room!!  

At one today, Ange and I are going down to a new used book store opening.  I don't read real books.  It kills trees and pollutes with their ink. Plus I am near blind and the kindle solves that issue. But Ange does so this store will be perfect for her.  I prolly won't go in so I will do a NYtimes crossword whilst I wait.

Gotta bounce.  I procrastinate!  Have an awesome day and TTYL

'I love when I wash a tissue with the laundry....said no one ever!.'  no-one 

THERE IT IS...THE MASSIVE SHEPHERD'S PIE